Cardinals taking new, cautious approach with JJ Wetherholt's position change

The roller coaster ride of the 2026 season for the St. Louis Cardinals is off to the type of start that most people may have predicted: good days, mediocre days, but probably more bad days than the rest. We have craved the up and down emotions of regular-season baseball since last September, so forgive us all for overreacting to what we have seen so far.

Besides JJ Wetherholt making noise with the bat in his much-anticipated debut, he has been steady at second base so far, profiling as an elite defender at the keystone despite being drafted and coming up through the system as a primary shortstop. With Masyn Winn entrenched there for the foreseeable future, the Cardinals knew Wetherholt would be sliding over to second, but kept him at his primary position for most of his first professional season. This change, although small and probably panned by some fans who knew that Winn is blocking him at short, is a noticeable shift from the previous regime. Now playing second base, the team is committing to him to spend the overwhelming majority of his time there, even as Winn needed a late-game replacement and a day off.

JJ Wetherholt playing second base without Winn in the lineup shows a change of thinking for the Cardinals

When Masyn Winn got in a minor car accident, the thought was he would receive the next game off, but he was the one in the lineup with JJ Wetherholt getting a breather. Winn moved to the vacant leadoff spot, but was removed later in the game due to some hip soreness and replaced by Thomas Saggese at short. Wetherholt also entered the game, but Oliver Marmol opted to keep JJ in his new primary position rather than his original spot. I pointed that out in passing on Twitter, but in game two, when Winn received that day off, Wetherholt remained at second base. At that point, I felt it was made more clear that the rookie's time at shortstop may be nearing an end, unless there was something more significant happening with Winn.

Marmol shared some information on the position alignment, with the manager saying that Wetherholt will receive some time at short every once in a while, but the consistency of one position is more important right now. This is a shift in thinking, and whether that is due to Chaim Bloom being at the helm or the organization learning from past mistakes, it is good to see them have a plan for their top prospect. After seeing Jordan Walker debut in the major leagues as an outfielder after being primarily a third baseman, we saw him struggle with the new position as well as with the bat.

Now in his fourth big league season, Walker is putting it all together so far in 2026, now fully adjusted to the outfield and three years' worth of big league at-bats. With two impressive outfield assists, one of which coming in over 100mph, and a 459-foot mammoth grand slam in the past week, the consistency has seemed to help Walker's confidence on both sides of the ball. Hopefully, this can be maintained throughout the season and he can continue to demonstrate what patience can do for a player.